Re/searching the Social in Creativity, Past, Present and Future: An Introduction to the Palgrave Handbook of Social Creativity Research

Abstract

In the introductory chapter we argue that, for a full understanding of creativity, it is necessary to take into account the social context of this phenomenon and, more than this, recognise the intrinsically social nature of creativity. Building on existing research and theoretical elaborations (e.g., on topics like the developmental origins of creativity, collaboration, socialisation), many of them discussed in this Handbook, we present several arguments for why creativity is, first and foremost, a social phenomenon. In light of this, a sustained focus on methodological and empirical discussions related to “re/searching the social” in creativity studies is timely and critical, advancing the field as a whole, something the chapters in the Palgrave Handbook of Social Creativity Research hope to achieve.

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